Erica rolled over as the morning sun hit her face. She expected to sink blissfully back into her goolfriend, but instead hit a hard, rubbery outer shell. She sleepily protested as she levered her eyes open to took at Gleria. "Baaaabe..."
"Sorry, Love," said Gleria, whose phone was currently floating inside her charcoal-tinted spherical mass and texting furiously. "Bad news from work, gotta respond." She stretched out of bed and extended a handful of pseudopods to skitter upstairs to her office, still writing the response of per my last email.
Erica blinked from the waterproof bed as her goolfriend vanished. "I'll make breakfast for us, okay?" she called.
A shower and some coffee later, Erica made her way up to Gleria's office with a plate full of delicious food and the second cup of coffee. "Breakfast, babe!" No response. "Babe?"
She rounded the corner to find Gleria frowning so much that it looked like she was growing armored plates. "Gleria, you look like you're going to explode. Take a break and eat something?"
"Can't." She rippled. "Somebody pushed an update that broke the whole system, like I told them it would, and now I have to fix it because the company is losing millions of dollars per minute. Just leave it there."
Erica frowned as she put down the plate. "Gleria, it's Saturday. This is supposed to be your day off."
"They got me on overtime. This'll be good for us, eventually." She extended a large pseudopod split down the middle and grabbed the food, the coffee, the plate, and the mug all at once and drew them into her core. Her computer beeped and she cursed at it. "I really can't talk right now. Sorry." The pseudopod lay there on the table, slowly hardening.
"Don't forget to drink some water, okay?" Erica tried to caress Gleria, but her membrane was so tough she couldn't get through at all. She gave her a kiss on her plating, then went back downstairs, a worried look on her face.
Erica leaned forward on the couch, tongue sticking out between her teeth as she guided her character stealthily along an outer ledge. Carefully... Carefully...
"MOTHERFUCKER!"
Erica jumped, and so did her character, thirty stories straight down. She scrambled at the controller for a moment before her character hit the ground and the game displayed "YOU DIED" at her. She sighed, put down the controller, and looked up at the ceiling, where softer but more creative cursing was emanating from. She filled up a water bottle and trekked upstairs.
Her goolfriend had formed another large split pseudopod for symmetry, and had clearly banged on the desk with it. She was steadily cursing so hard Erica thought she might actually boil. She put the water bottle down next to another water bottle, completely full. "More bad news?"
"Those idiots rebooted in the middle of my update and completely bricked their machines. I have to start all over." she banged one of her pseudopods on the table again for emphasis.
"Sounds like a them problem?"
"Yes, but I'm the only one that can fix it."
Erica checked her phone. "It's been six hours, babe. Can't you at least take a break?"
"Not without losing the company a bunch of money."
Erica leaned against the wall, in Gleria's line of sight. "So let it! It's not your fault, right? You even warned them! Its not like theyre gonna fire you if youre the only one that can fix it."
Gleria's core gyrated, still jostling with her phone and the plate and mug from breakfast. "I'm... I'm so close. I've almost got it. I can't stop now."
Erica frowned, the heaved a sigh. "Okay, but do actually drink some water, okay? You look dehydrated." She clicked the two full water bottles together for emphasis.
"Yeah, sure," said Gleria, already absorbed in her work again. "Thanks, love."
"You're gonna seize up," warned Erica, to deaf goo. She sighed again and made her way back downstairs.
Erica was partway through making pasta for dinner when she heard a thump from above. She eyed the timer, then hurried upstairs. "Babe? You okay?"
Erica flicked on the light to see her goolfriend, computer shut down, toppled over on what was now apparently her back. The two large pseudopods had hardened into claws and dragged her over backwards, leaving her tiny typing/foot pseudopods waving in the air, clacking against her hardened skin. "I don't want to say I told you so," grunted Erica as she heaved at the large goo, "but did you drink any of the water I got you?"
Gleria toppled over, back onto her hardened front. Erica stared at her for a moment before her phone buzzed. Gleria had texted her. "Sorry, you were totally right, can you please help get me to the tub so I can osmose a little?"
"You can't even talk?!" Erica goggled. "Babe, you've got to take better care of yourself!"
The crystallized goo in front of her clacked her claws in what was probably supposed to be chagrined agreement.
"Well, it's just like I said," said Erica, grinning as she helped Gleria navigate the stairs. "You really need to find a job that'll make you less... crabby."
Erica dodged the pinch and ran ahead to run the tub, laughing all the way.
